I used to be a voracious reader. I would read a book a day, if I had the time. But when I started writing, my reading slacked off. I was worried that I’d be distracted from coming up with my own ideas, or that the things I read would bleed over into my own stories.

I’ve since decided that this was a silly thing to worry about, and I started reading again.

Because it had been a few years since I tucked into a fiction book, I had a backlog to tackle. Neal Stephenson is my favorite living author, and it was with eager anticipation that I cracked the cover of his 2019 novel The Fall.

As with most Stephenson books, you never quite know what you’re getting into. This one proved to be no different. I thought I was in for a gripping techno-thriller in the vein of Cryptonomicon or Reamde. Instead, what I discovered was one of the best fantasy books I’ve read in my entire life.

That’s a very divisive statement to make for Stephenson fans. The Fall was poorly received compared to his more popular books. Most of his readers expect and demand weird, pseudo sci-fi futurism with a healthy dose of angsty, overwrought prose. Neal seems to be allergic to writing short books.

So for him to drop what is essentially his take on Lord of the Rings was quite a dramatic shift in what he usually writes.

Personally, I loved it. There’s a mythical quality to The Fall that few other books can match, and the world that he builds is so compelling that I was genuinely sad to have to step away from it once I finished the book. It was fresh in a way that I feel modern fantasy lacks.

I can’t say too much for risk of spoiling the story, but I will say that it’s the best book I’ve read in years, and it might be in my top three fantasy books of all time.